


With Haste

by DwarvenBeardSpores



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon-typical discussions of mortality, Experience of time, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Misunderstandings, Mortality, Potions, The Moon - Freeform, canon-typical mentions of religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DwarvenBeardSpores/pseuds/DwarvenBeardSpores
Summary: Grizzop and Cel could be amazing friends. Just, notquietfriends. Not at all.And even when nobody's time traveling, experiencing time iscomplicated.So, snapshots of that, basically.
Relationships: Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam & Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom
Comments: 32
Kudos: 72





	With Haste

**Author's Note:**

> Lydia and Ben dynamics I love include:   
> Zolf and Sasha  
> Sasha and Grizzop  
> Cel and Zolf  
> … Grizzop and Cel? Yes. Yes, Grizzop and Cel.

Cel runs their fingers through their hair, somehow making it even more vertical. It's a bit excessive, really, they're already ridiculously tall. They grin at the pile of bits and scrap on the workshop floor. "So I think this is everything except for maybe the--" 

"Oh! Yeah! The--" Grizzop flips through the list Cel's given him. It's not neat, but it's a list, and he can work with a list. He squints at Cel's handwriting, which is not only a scrawl, but frequently crossed out and rewritten in the margins. "Bass screams?"

Cel leans down to peer at the list. "Brass spheres!" they translate. "Which do serve a somewhat different purpose than literal screams, although it  _ might  _ be possible to substitute--"

"Right." Grizzop flips through the rest of the list, but he's done it all. He's been very effective. "I can track those down tomorrow, think you can get started before then?" Cel's building a massive image capturing device,  _ 'like a darrugotype but with magic gelatin? And electricity,' _ to help with their investigations. It's not  _ urgent,  _ but better to have it sooner than later. And Grizzop's excited to see the pictures.

"Oh, definitely. The spheres are for a bit of semi-magical calibration, but I'm going to need the overall framework first, and--"

"How long?" Grizzop asks. It's best, he's discovered, to cut Cel off when he really needs an answer, let them ramble when he doesn't. 

"A week," Cel says. "Tops."

"A real week or a fake week?"

Cel blinks at him. "Okay, so a fake week is not a unit of time that I generally--"

"Last time, when you were making the big propeller thing for Sasha, you said two weeks," Grizzop says. "It took four. If you say this is a week, how long's it  _ actually  _ gonna take?"

"I mean a week is the amount of time it  _ should-- _ "

"What if it blows up?" 

"What?"

"What if it blows up halfway through? Then how long?"

"This is much less volatile than the the propeller, it's not likely to--" 

"What if it blows up twice?" Grizzop wrings his hands. "Look, I'm going to mind way  _ more  _ if you give me a promising estimate and then go over, than if you give me a longer estimate and then go under."

Cel scrunches up their face as they think. "...Eight… days?" 

Grizzop buries his face in his hands. Apparently Cel can't estimate time for shit. "We'll say two weeks," he decides, but if it goes longer than eight days he's going to have a hard time shaking off the frustration.

* * *

Thirteen days later, Cel takes a first picture of the two of them. Grizzop climbs on their shoulders, but Cel doesn't quite have all the details right. The camera takes one photograph of Cel's eyebrows and Grizzop's grin before exploding. 

They get back to work rebuilding it almost immediately.

Grizzop keeps the picture.

* * *

"Wotcher, Cel!" 

Cel looks up from their tinkering and blinks at him. They're wearing a headpiece with lenses that magnify their eyes, so it's really obvious. Grizzop can't miss the kinda dazed, kinda tired look, or the way their fingers are shaking a little. "Hey litt--- nope, sorry, I'm a little out of it. I'm  _ kinda  _ out of it.  _ Stop it, Cel. _ " They shake their head. "Hey buddy! What can I do for you?" 

Grizzop ignores the slip. It's obvious  _ now  _ they don't mean anything by it. "When did you last sleep?" he demands. Seems like he's always doing this with someone, these days.

They blink at him again and take off the headgear. "Um. Well, this is a bit of a-- a sensitive piece, that I'm working on? I've had some tea and I've had some potions and that's usually enough to keep me going for-- Okay, so you know that thing where you're sort of sleeping in between seconds?"

"Is this gonna blow up?" Grizzop demands, gesturing at the weird little thing they're working on.

"What?" 

"If you leave this right now, is it gonna blow up, or melt acid, or in any way cause destruction and danger that could be easily prevented?"

Cel laughs a little warily. "N-no? Not unless I've done something  _ really  _ wrong in which case the prevention is maybe not so relevant anymore. But if you  _ needed  _ it to leak acid--"

"Good." Grizzop yanks the device out of Cel's hands and plonks it on the table. Before Cel can react, he grabs their fingers and starts tugging them out of the lab. "C'mon then. We're gonna get you some sleep, and I'll have Zolf make you something for when you wake up. Honestly, why am  _ I  _ the only one who seems to know what a reasonable sleep schedule looks like!? Probably because I'm the only one who's  _ over  _ wasting time being tired!"

"It's fine--" Cel says, cutting themselves off with a yawn. Grizzop's got a tight grip and, though the height difference is awkward, Cel isn't fighting, and he succeeds in dragging them up the stairs.

"Right," he says, all but kicking their knees to get them into bed. "Take off anything that'll stop you from sleeping, and anything with dangerous stuff in the pockets."

Cel sighs and shrugs off their coat. "Okay," they say. "Oookay, okay. Alright buddy. You can go now I've got it from here I-- I mean you're probably  _ right  _ that I-- I don't always  _ remember  _ and Jasper's got his own stuff going on now, and-- y'know you don't always  _ realize  _ how symbiotic a relationship was until it changes?"

"Yeah," Grizzop says. "Your belt's got tools on it."

Cel blinks and starts fumbling with their belt, and Grizzop's absolutely gonna stop there-- not gonna make them undress, no matter what might be in their pockets, he's not an  _ asshole. _

"See the thing is I don't-- I don't wanna keep you?" Cel mumbles. "No sense in you wasting time looking after-- I mean you don't even  _ like _ me."

Grizzop frowns. "Course I like you."

Cel flops into bed and looks at him sideways. "No you don't I-- I keep getting things wrong, and I don't  _ mean  _ to offend you but that doesn't mean I  _ don't _ and--"

"Nah, don't be stupid," Grizzop says. "You're great!" He always manages to get it wrong, somehow, showing affection. People don't  _ listen.  _ "And it's not a waste of time to take care of my friends."

"Oh," Cel says. They look like they're going to ask something more, but later. They need to sleep now.

"Night night!" Grizzop says, and gives them a quick pat on the forehead. "Sweet dreams!"

* * *

Grizzop does bring up some breakfast when Cel finally wakes up. They look a little sheepish, and eventually talk their way around to asking Grizzop "so we  _ are  _ friends?" 

He gives them a  _ look _ . "I'm gonna haveta get better at showing you that, aren't I?"

"I mean, social cues are-- I'm not  _ great  _ at them all the time, so I mean-- you could just say it."

"Fine," Grizzop says. "Cel Sidebottom, you're a good friend to me, and I hope I'm one to you."

Cel beams.

* * *

"So here's the thing," Cel says, squinting as they measure an amount of bright purple potion into a small vial. Grizzop bounces in impatience. The potion, it, it  _ shines.  _ It's everything he wants, practically, turned into a stinky liquid and dripping slowly into a bottle.

"I'm going to give this to you, and it's going to be a smaller dose than what you've seen me take, and I'm going to tell you right now that this is  _ not,  _ like, discrimination, or reverse-favoritism, or an attempt to undermine you, or tell you what you should do with your body. It is because, in my time as an alchemist I have learned that taking too  _ much  _ Haste actually does not keep having a cumulative effect of speed."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't be offended, get on with it." 

"In fact," Cel continues, "what it does do is make your limbs too fast for your mind to keep up, so instead of being able to accomplish things, you mostly end up tripping over yourself and knocking things over in rapid succession for hours until it wears off. I cannot recommend. And also--" They pause their pour and turn to look at Grizzop, squinting slightly. It's all he can do not to screech at them about getting distracted.

"Also, buddy, you are already  _ really _ fast, and I get the feeling that you going faster is quite frankly going to be a little bit terrifying."

Grizzop grins with all his teeth. "That's the idea!"

Cel laughs. "In that case I hope that I'm around when you use it." They cork the vial and press it into Grizzop's hands. He's shaking a little. They don't comment.

"Right" he says, clutching what's basically liquid time to his chest. He's  _ so  _ tempted to chug it now, but he wants to make the best use of it, so instead he says "thanks Cel! Gonna go put this somewhere safe!"

"Any time!" Cel says, even as Grizzop is already dashing for the door. "Well, not  _ any  _ time cause I've got to sleep, and also I am definitely establishing limits and--" He's out the door. "Enjoy the Haste, buddy!"

Grizzop is halfway up the stairs when he hears Hamid downstairs start to wail. "Cel, what have you  _ done?! _ "

Grizzop grins wider.

* * *

After a whirlwind day of absolute  _ bliss _ and good work and  _ haste,  _ Grizzop crashes hard. At Cel's insistence, he's curled up in their lab. They mutter about the dosage, about fatigue effects. Grizzop's got a spell for that, but he used up his spells earlier, and at any rate, a nap would do him good… he closes his eyes and lets Cel's chattering about speed lull him to sleep.

* * *

_ "You're ninety-seven?"  _ Grizzop screeches.  _ "Ninety-seven!?" _

"I mean,." Cel says, "probably? If I've done the math right. It's a lot of years to keep track of and I--"

"You don't even  _ know?!  _ You--  _ oh _ , this is why I avoid hanging out with elves and-- and people like you. I mean what am I supposed to do with "probably"?" It's not fair and he knows it, it's not Cel's  _ fault  _ and he knows it, but there is a hot, burning anger in his chest, and a frantic sense of panic, and if he doesn't shout he is going to have to shoot something, and there are a lot of dangerous things in Cel's lab. "It's like you're in a completely different world, with infinite time! You're not keeping track of every year, every day, every  _ minute _ , because it's all just endless decades with you!"

Cel bites their lip and looks at him, and he doesn't see pity there which is good because he's going to shout more if he thinks they pity him. Augh, he's going to have to shoot something anyway, isn't he?

"I-- I'm sorry," Cel says, and that doesn't stop him but he does listen, even as he hops up and begins pacing, trying to burn through the feeling and get it over with. 

"Don't be."

"I mean, I'm not sorry for, like, being alive, except on  _ very  _ bad days, and obviously I don't have any control over your experience with time, and to be perfectly honest being ninety-seven does come with its own set of challenges that are neither comparable nor relevant, but I-- I do acknowledge that this is a frustrating and upsetting experience for you to live in. All the time."

Grizzop feels his pacing slow, but it's not cause he's stopped feeling, it's cause he wants to hear what they say. It's just… people, especially people with long lifespans, usually try to fight him on it. Tell him it's not that bad. Or they get super weird about it. And Cel isn't fighting him. 

"I mean that is-- that sounds like a lot of pressure, and a lot of stress, and, and, a lot of things to grieve for that haven't happened yet."

Right.  _ Right.  _ Grizzop's ears twitch and flatten back against his head.

Cel fidgets with a bit of wire. "And you're right, I don't understand, and I  _ can't  _ understand, but I do... care. I care a lot, Grizzop. And… I'm sorry."

Grizzop stops. His eyes sting. "Oh." He says. "Right." He doesn't have anything else to say. "Thanks."

He doesn't look at Cel.

"Would you maybe like a hug?" Cel asks cautiously.

Grizzop isn't planning on it but all of a sudden he's running and leaping at Cel's stomach, and he clings, and their arms close around his back. 

"Oh!" Cel says. Grizzop's pressed his face to them and he can feel their voice vibrating through their chest. "I am going to take that as a yes, and-- and I'm glad, and-- and-- I'm going to sit down now because I am slightly off balance but that is not a judgement on you..."

Grizzop clings tighter as Cel sinks awkwardly to the ground and crosses their legs, repositions their arms to hold him more comfortably.

"This isn't gonna be a long hug," Grizzop mumbles. "I'm not Hamid." But he doesn't let go quite yet.

* * *

Hugs aren't… they aren't fast, they aren't really useful, and they mostly don't help but sometimes they do. And Cel has a lot of arm to hug with. And sometimes they're around when Grizzop wakes up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and goes to raid the kitchen in a desperate attempt to forget his own mortality. And sometimes that's good.

* * *

Sometimes Grizzop stops to look at the moon. He doesn't  _ need  _ to, he knows it's there, and his Lady knows that he knows. But it's gorgeous. And the way it shines on him makes him feel important. Seen. Reminds him that whatever else is happening, whatever politics and bureaucracy and annoying bullshit, his Goddess is beautiful and enduring and bigger than any of it.

Tonight the moon is full, bright, and Grizzop sits in the grass, staring up, rolling an arrow between his hands.

He hears footsteps coming from the house, long legs, Cel. "Hey buddy," they say. "You okay out here?"

"Yep," Grizzop says. "Fine. Just watching."

"Can I join you?"

"Yeah, go on."

Cel sits down next to him, long limbs folding in on themselves until they can rest their chin on their knees. "I like looking at the moon," they say. "It's so far off, and so big, a-and so weird and mysterious, and It reminds me of how small I really am, in comparison. I mean the amount of gravity the moon must produce and the amount of gravity that I  _ don't _ is just-- and-- and I think about how inconsequential, really, a lot of my mistakes might be. Not  _ all  _ of them, not-- not all of them. But a lot of them."

Grizzop takes his eyes off the moon to give them a sideways look. He can't tell if they're upset or just feeling introspective.

"Huh," Grizzop says. "Always does the opposite for me. Reminds me I'm part of stuff bigger than myself. Y'know, cycles of nature, and the whole goddess thing. Stuff that matters."

Cel gives him a small smile. They run their hands through their hair, which is still really unreasonably tall. "You know, I-- I know a little bit about most gods a-and religious practices, but I don't know a  _ lot  _ about Artemis, and I haven't spent-- I've never really talked to someone in-depth about her, which is kind of weird now I think about it but we-- I've only met a few clerics who follow her and we didn't get along terribly well."

"I can imagine."

Cel laughs. "We have some-- some very different philosophies."

"Yup. But we're cool, yeah. So, got any questions?"

Cel bites their lip, clearly excited. "I mean, always," they say. "If-- if you don't mind talking, at least for a little while?

"Sure," Grizzop says. He grins at Cel and then looks back at the moon. "I've got some time."

* * *

Grizzop does not convert Cel to the temple of Artemis, but then, he hadn't expected to. They sit and watch the moon climb in the sky, until Cel finally says "want to do an experiment and blow something up?" and Grizzop, who's pretty sure they're still looking for a distraction, says "yeah, alright!" and they hasten inside together.


End file.
